Free tool · Loans
Debt snowball calculator
Several debts plus one extra payment → payoff order, months, and total interest either way.
Runs in your browser · no account required · amounts use any currency unit
Your debts
Columns: name, balance, minimum payment, annual rate (%).
Above the minimums, directed at one debt at a time
Results
Payoff order
- 1. Card A — cleared in month 6
- 2. Card B — cleared in month 16
- 3. Personal loan — cleared in month 24
In short
What is this?
Snowball targets the smallest balance first; avalanche targets the highest rate. Both pay minimums on everything else and direct spare money at one target, with each cleared debt's minimum rolling into the next. Avalanche costs less; snowball produces earlier wins.
How the two strategies differ
Both assume you pay minimums on everything and direct one extra amount at a single target. The only difference is which target you choose.
Avalanche orders by interest rate, highest first, which minimises total interest by definition. Snowball orders by balance, smallest first, which clears individual debts faster and shortens the list quickly.
Why the gap is often smaller than expected
Run both and compare the total interest. For typical consumer debt the difference is frequently modest — a few percent of total interest — unless you have a high-rate debt that also carries a large balance.
That case is where avalanche's advantage becomes genuinely significant. When rates are similar, or when the small debts are also the expensive ones, both orderings produce nearly the same result and the question is moot.
The rolling effect
When a debt clears, its minimum payment joins the amount attacking the next one. That is what makes payoff accelerate, and it is the most commonly wasted opportunity.
A freed-up minimum is money you have already proven you can live without. If it quietly becomes ordinary spending, you lose the compounding entirely.
What matters more than the ordering
- How much extra you send. Doubling it dwarfs any ordering effect.
- Whether you stop adding new debt. Paying down a card you keep using is a treadmill.
- Whether you hold a small buffer, so the first surprise does not reverse months of progress.
- Whether you get any rate reduced. A successful negotiation or refinance can beat both strategies outright.
If payments exceed what your income can service, neither strategy applies and the right step is regulated debt advice in your jurisdiction.
FAQ
- Which is better, snowball or avalanche?
- Avalanche costs less by definition; snowball has better completion rates. Since a plan only saves money if you finish it, pick snowball if you have abandoned a payoff plan before.
- Can I mix the two strategies?
- Yes, and many people should. Clear one genuinely punitive high-rate debt first, then snowball the rest for momentum. Nothing requires ideological purity here.
- What happens to a payment when a debt is cleared?
- It should roll into the next target. That rolling effect is what makes payoff accelerate, and letting it become ordinary spending is the most common way people lose it.
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